Historic buildings sometimes can't stand test of time

Speeding along Rte. 9 in Westborough, you may at first glance miss the aging white mansion, with its peeling paint and broken windows, looming over the dozens of stores and offices that define the highway. The 3,700-square-foot building called the Nathan Fisher House after its original owner, has been vacant si...

By Kelleigh Welch/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Kelleigh Welch/Daily News staff

Posted Apr. 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 29, 2012 at 3:42 AM

By Kelleigh Welch/Daily News staff

Posted Apr. 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 29, 2012 at 3:42 AM

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Speeding along Rte. 9 in Westborough, you may at first glance miss the aging white mansion, with its peeling paint and broken windows, looming over the dozens of stores and offices that define the highway.

The 3,700-square-foot building called the Nathan Fisher House after its original owner, has been vacant since 2006 when local preservation groups abandoned renovation plans when they couldn’t come up with the money. Since then, the house has been left waiting for a buyer to come along and find a way to preserve it.

But with state-mandated preservation restrictions on the house, any renovation would be a luxury instead of a necessity.

said. “It would cost a fortune and the town certainly has higher priorities than to renovate the building.”

Built in 1820, the Nathan Fisher House was once home to a prominent merchant, and in 1919, the house was sold to the state’s Lyman School for Boys, a reformatory.

In 1979, the house was given to the town, and a local group of historians called the Friends of the Nathan Fisher House began an effort to preserve the building and turn it into a local museum.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission provided a $30,000 grant to install a handicapped bathroom on the first floor in exchange for a deed restriction that would protect the historical aspects of the home.

“This is a common occurrence,” said commission spokesman Brian McNiff. “Preservation grants are awarded on a competitive basis and they do carry a preservation restriction to provide protection against future destruction or total reconfiguration of the property.”

Since renovation efforts were abandoned in 2006, the Nathan Fisher House has sat empty and deteriorating. While the town continues to maintain the landscape and provide minor repairs, officials hope to sell the property to a private owner. But with estimates of repairs costing over $1 million, no prospective buyer has come forward.

“We went through the process to put it up for sale and had no bidders, so now we’re working on a simple sub-division of the house and the lot next to it to try to sell on the market separately,” Malloy said.

While deed restrictions prevent outlandish changes to a historic property, they can in turn prevent owners from doing maintenance. In some cases, buildings end up being condemned because they are unsafe. McNiff said in such cases, the commission has rules that require the owner to make a historic record of the property before the building is demolished. He said demolition is a last-case scenario for any property.

But the story of the Nathan Fisher House is not uncommon in MetroWest and the Milford area.

In Framingham, the abandoned Rugg-Gates House off Rte. 9 near the Park-and-Ride lot is also waiting for something to happen.

Page 2 of 3 - Framingham historian Fred Wallace said the state Department of Transportation, the current owner, is looking to sell the parking lot and the Rugg-Gates House as one unit. However, with that deal, a buyer would have to preserve the home’s exterior.

“In terms of Framingham’s own historic preservation plan, this is one of the buildings that is considered historically significant,” Wallace said. “There’s been a long history of trying hard to protect the house.”

However, until a willing buyer comes forward, the Rugg-Gates House will remain empty.

“It is in danger of deteriorating. It needs someone to come in and stabilize it,” Wallace said.

In Upton, local officials want to renovate the town’s historic Town Hall despite the prospect of restrictions that will make the job costly.

Upton Town Clerk Kelly McElreath said in the late-1990s the town was given a grant from the state commission to repair the roof. Like the one given to Nathan Fisher House, the grant came with a deed restriction, requiring the town to preserve aspects of the circa-1882 building according to its original design. The building has not been renovated since 1965.

“We’re restricted on things we can do with the building,” McElreath said. “We are not ADA compliant or energy efficient, so there are things that we need to do.”

The lack of handicap access prevents the town from using the large meeting room on the top floor because it is not available to all members of the public, McElreath said.

Schematics have been completed, McElreath said, and will include ramps to enter the building and an elevator that will stop at every floor. She said the state commission has voted in favor of those plans, but will not fully approve the renovations until the town has agreed to go ahead with it.

At the upcoming Town Meeting on May 10, Upton residents will be asked to set aside $398,000 to finalize the design and put the project out for bid.

Since 2005, McElreath said Upton has collected a 3 percent surcharge on all property tax bills to put into a Community Preservation Act fund, collecting $300,000 annually. She said this fund helps pay for preservation projects including building renovations and purchasing open space.

“The hope (for the Town Hall renovation project) is that it won’t increase taxes because there are other funds,” McElreath said.

In Westborough, a once desolate farmhouse at 43 Church St. is nearing the finish of a three-year renovation.

Private developer Michael Fitzpatrick said he purchased the circa-1850 farmhouse in 2009 with the intention to create a customized home for himself and his wife.

“We wanted to find a place that needed a lot of work,” Fitzpatrick said.

When Fitzpatrick started his work, he realized the house was in worse shape than he expected. He ended up gutting the interior.

Using a photograph of the house from the 1800s, Fitzpatrick said he restored the exterior to its original appearance. Inside, the design and amenities are high-tech, with flat-screen TVs, modern steel decoration and a wine cellar.

Fitzpatrick estimated the renovations cost him more than $1 million, not including the $180,000 to purchase the property. He said the project was worth the money because it’s important to preserve such buildings.

“I think I feel bad for them (the houses), like they’re living things. A hundred and fifty years ago people worked hard to build this house and there’s not many people who do this workmanship anymore,” Fitzpatrick said.

(Kelleigh Welch can be reached at 508-490-7475 or kwelch@wickedlocal.com)